Posts Tagged ‘movies’

The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple is an empathetically written book about Bahadur Shah Zafar, Delhi and the 1857 mutiny. In this wonderfully thorough book Dalrymple also mentions two popular poems attributed to Zafar. These were set to tune and used in the movie Lal Qila. (Darlymple mentions the movie and also the singer Mohammad Rafi). I could not resist looking up tube for the songs and to my delight found them. Here are the youtube links:

1. Lagta Nahin Hai Dil Mera

2. Na Kisi Ki Ankh Ka Noor Hoon

Wonderful songs. However, the spoiler comes from the experts! Apparently, there is not enough evidence to suggest that these were indeed written by Zafar. The available book of poems by Zafar does not have these two. One wonders why would it get into the public psyche that the poems were by Zafar if they were not by him. After all he never did propaganda for his poems. He died the death of a common man, unknown to anyone.

12.97159977.594563

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I saw the movie yesterday. Its different but not extraordinary. The make up man deserves the award. One wonders how he can be made to look so different. AB is pretty tall in real life but it does’nt show up in the movie. Ofcourse, he looks taller than other students but not as much. The film is 2hrs20min but it does’nt drag.
Vidya Balan looked and acted like a mom. Arundhati Nag played the role of Vidya’s mom deservedly. AB ofcourse did great but i wonder if Kamal Hassan could have done better. Abhishek …could he have done better. Paresh Rawal had barely any scope in the story. He was truly wasted.
The music and background score is typical Illayaraja. Those who have seen old south indian movies would find barely anything new. Even the sounds are the same…Though i have’nt seen many southy movies or know as many songs i could reconise one telugu song..” akasham yenatido anuragam anatide..”
On the whole its a good movie and worth watching once. But will it be a crowd puller? I doubt.

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I was a fan of his in my school and college days up to my graduation. After that i liked different actors but was never a fan of one. In my school days, I used to wait for the summer to arrive so that i could grow hair and then get the AB hair cut. It was fashionable; atleast i thought so.

I knew that he had started a blog but never was motivated to read it. Probably out of indifference. But then thanx to my stay in Seoul, i have a lot of time and often look for ways to spend it. …a few days ago i clicked this link, probably a cross link from www.timeofindia.com. And i just couldn’t stop reading. He is an incredible writer. The flow of words is so natural and most importantly its conversation-like. Wonderful.

His blogs are interspersed with gems like the one i read today…

“if you dream to fly with the Eagles dont waste your time swimming with the Ducks!”

and the other day he quoted Buddha:

“There is no way to happiness: happiness is the way”

His blogs make absolutely fascinating reading. I am a fan of his yet again.

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For all those who remember Malgudi days features on the Doordarshan channel aeons ago, there is some good news. Atleast it is so for those who stay abroad. The episodes are available online here. I just watched the most interesting episode, ‘old man of the temple’…its been so long that i barely remember having watched it.

However, i am not clear if appropriate permission has been taken for posting the videos online.